Capitol Theatre
310 N. Miami Avenue,
Miami,
FL
33128
310 N. Miami Avenue,
Miami,
FL
33128
1 person
favorited this theater
Wometco’s Capitol Theatre in downtown was the first house in the Wometco chain and the first link in the Caribbean chain’s theatre and leisure dynasty. Built in 1925 as a mini replica of the New York Capitol Theatre, it closed in 1952 and became a victim of television in more ways than one.
It became the home of WTVJ, the Wometco TV station, Miami’s first. The Capitol Theatre came back briefly in the early-1970’s for a brief unsuccessful test as a blaxploitation house.
The building was demolished in 2000.
Contributed by
Al Alvarez
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
The latest Google map shows it gone but the building on the corner is still there.
A Wurlitzer theater organ opus 1299 style “E” was installed in the Capitol Theater on 3/22/1926. Status: sold.
Was this theatre ever called the Carver Theatre?
The Capitol:
View link
The intro should be altered as follows:
“The Capitol name came back briefly at the Harlem Theatre in the early seventies for a brief unsuccessful test as a blaxploitation house.”
The architect was E.T. Wells.
The 1947 Polk Directory lists the address as 316 N. Miami Ave. I was inside in 1956 well after the WTVJ conversion and it wasn’t much of a movie theatre. The control room and technical area was where the balcony was/would have been; this allowed the control room to overlook the studio area on the old theatre floor, and I suspect some of the other commercial space on the block was used for offices. The reception desk was where the refreshment area should have been.
Fantastic info, Willimd.
Please do tell us more about Wometco. There seems to be so little about this great pioneer Florida company.
The Capitol opened on June 25th, 1926. The grand opening section starts at View link (some pages are torn)
The original Capitol Theater building which was converted in 1946 to serve as the home of WTVJ-TV4 (the main studio was created out of the theater house and stage areas and was approx 90' x 90' x 35'h, with a single-purchase counter-weight fly system running the length of the studio) was demolished in 2000, along with other buildings on the west side of the theater containing film labs and support services, and was replaced by the US District Court building.